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Royal Roads designated Ashoka U Changemaker Campus

Royal Roads University’s role as a leader for change and social innovation has been recognized with its designation as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus.

The Ashoka U Changemaker Campus Network is a dynamic, global community of more than 40 universities and colleges committed to advancing social innovation and changemaking across their institution and beyond. Ashoka U is an initiative of Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs and changemakers.

“The Ashoka U Changemaker Campus designation highlights how essential social innovation has always been to Royal Roads University,” says Royal Roads University President and Vice-Chancellor Allan Cahoon. “Changemaking is part of our DNA as an organization and it is embedded in everything we do, from our applied research to our culture of mentorship and collaboration for social change.”

According to Ashoka U’s co-founder and executive director, Marina Kim, students need interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial and solutions-oriented skillsets to succeed in today’s complex world that is changing at an accelerating pace.

“Students are all seeking meaning and a viable career path where they can thrive and contribute,” she says. “Social innovation skills focus on developing empathy, creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving and prepare students to add value in the world, regardless of whether they innovate within existing organizations or start their own organization.”

Changemaking at Royal Roads begins with a student-centered approach to flexible admissions and is embedded in a university-wide learning and teaching model and an interdisciplinary, applied research focus. Royal Roads’ progressive model of education delivers applied and professional graduate and undergraduate degree programs, Canada’s first applied research doctorate, and exceptional certificate and diploma programs. At Royal Roads, full-time students, working professionals and lifelong learners find opportunities and skills to create positive change in their lives and work, in their communities and on the global stage.

Signature Royal Roads University programs for change include:

The Doctor of Social Sciences (DSocSci) program offers relevant doctoral training that not only nurtures professional students as skilled researchers, but also allows them to conduct applied research, to communicate it in the most appropriate ways to a variety of audiences and to produce networks of scholar-practitioners who continue a lifetime of collaborative work as public intellectuals and changemakers.

The Master of Arts in Leadership program focuses on real-world problem-solving projects grounded in a rigorous theoretical understanding of the nature of today’s organizations and the changing role of leadership within them.

About Ashoka and Ashoka U: Founded in 1980, Ashoka is the largest global network of social entrepreneurs and changemakers. Ashoka seeks to contribute to an Everyone a Changemaker world where every young person grows up to become an adult changemaker, capable of taking creative action to solve a social problem–a world where the development of young changemakers and the practice of changemaking are the norm.

Ashoka U offers the Changemaker Campus Designation to recognize colleges and universities globally that have embedded social innovation and changemaking into their culture, programming and operations and are committed to partnering in the network to make social innovation and changemaking the new norm across higher education.